Chapter 6 - The discounted repurchase model
Forensic email review found a spreadsheet on Vivian’s company drive.
Created two weeks before Isla’s birthday.
Title:
Leadership transition scenarios
Scenario A:
Everett remains CEO.
Scenario B:
Temporary suspension.
Scenario C:
Termination for cause.
Scenario D:
Negotiated founder exit.
There is nothing inherently wrong with succession planning.
Then numbers.
In Scenario B:
Marwick delayed.
Company valuation estimated to fall 12–18% in next internal financing round.
Scenario D assumed I would sell:
8% of my 31% stake.
Price:
$21 per share equivalent.
Current independent internal valuation:
Approximately $31.
Why would I sell at discount?
Column:
Litigation / reputational settlement leverage
Then buyer group.
Vivian.
Investor Stonebridge Capital.
Two executives.
Potentially company itself.
The plan would shift effective voting influence away from me.
Not ownership majority.
Enough to weaken control.
Then a draft email Vivian never sent:
If Everett is suspended before Marwick closes, he will have to choose between protecting his position and protecting enterprise value. A negotiated repurchase becomes rational.
There.
No cake mentioned.
No child.
Still.
Then another file:
Event response sequence
Record.
Secure witness accounts.
Notify lender counsel.
Request emergency committee.
Invoke conduct-review provisions.
Offer stabilization agreement.
Created:
Three days before party.
The event was not named.
Then text to her sister Tessa:
Madeline just needs to make Isla stop acting like she owns every room. Everett will handle the rest himself.
Tessa had not responded because she thought Vivian was venting.
Now it looked different.
Then Vivian’s marital position.
She and I had signed a prenuptial agreement.
My founder shares were separate property.
Her 6.5% remained hers.
Divorce would not automatically transfer my company.
So corporate pressure, not marital property, was her route.
That narrowed motive.
Then I asked Marcus:
“Can this be criminal?”
He shook his head.
“Scheming to provoke a CEO into bad conduct is not automatically criminal. Directing a child to commit an assault could create separate issues depending evidence and statute. Corporate fiduciary claims are stronger.”
“So she can try to take my company through a manufactured scandal and it’s civil?”
“She didn’t take it.”
Important.
Attempted leverage is not completed theft.
Then:
“What can I do?”
“Stop thinking like an angry husband.”
“What do I think like?”
“A director and father.”
May you like
I hated the answer.
He was right.
